Distributed communication technology has rapidly advanced as its benefits in business, government and other human endeavors become ever more apparent. Teleconferencing and videoconferencing is used frequently in business, government, military, education and other professional and non-professional organizations as a means for providing communication between separated individuals. The use of videoconferencing has also become a commonplace facet in the personal life of many users, communicating via video-link over the internet, mobile phone or other networks.
In particular, the use of internet and mobile social networks as a means of communication between individuals has rapidly increased in popularity. In an increasing proportion of users, social networks have become the primary means of communication with people outside the users' immediate physical vicinity. Social networks offer a method of communication that benefits many users. However, social networks have also been abused by criminals and other malicious individuals to harm other users through deceitful practices such as the use of false or misleading identities. Malicious users may portray themselves to be another person to solicit money from another user or to deceive vulnerable individuals into a personal meeting for nefarious purposes.
As used herein, the term “social network” can be interpreted include the now ubiquitous social networks such as Facebook™ and LinkedIn™, as well as any networks created indirectly through collaboration in online gaming, online forums, relationship facilitation services (e.g. ‘dating sites’), virtual ‘worlds’ and similar formal and informal networks.
Such social networking sites allow people to interact with each other online using:                their own true identity,        an alias that may or may not be tied to their real identity, or        a false identity.        
The use of aliases or false identities can often be harmless and even overt, e.g. as in gaming applications. However, aliases or false identities can also cause problems as they provide the ability for dishonest people to assume an identity in order to conceal, deceive, or mislead others in some way. This deception can be used to gain trust of vulnerable individuals (for example young people or children) whom would not usually interact with people outside their age group, especially on issues of personal relationships or finances. Similarly, on interpersonal dating sites it is possible for members to have profile pictures that are not accurate representations or may even be of another person entirely. Thus, other users are deceived as to the true identity of the other person.
Social networking accounts may also be hijacked by criminals and used to discredit the reputation of the legitimate owner or analyzed to extract sensitive information from the legitimate owner's account or their contacts.
While passwords may provide some level of security, many users are incautious with password security and often use simplistic, easily guessed passwords.
Typical network assessment methods rely on a simple text-based user-ID and password combination to verify an entity as an authorised user. However, such a text-based system of authentication provides no means for an assessing user to verify that an entity has not compromised the authorised user's account.
Using text as a means of communication in Social networks also does not provide visual verification of the registered user, thus providing a means for presenting a fraudulent persona to other users, e.g. a paedophile may create a network account with false details and pictures and thereby present themselves as having a different appearance or being the same age as potential victims. Although more difficult to achieve than in text-based communication, users can also be deceived by voice impersonations in audio communication.
It will be apparent that people may communicate using conventional video communication which reduces the possibility of deception, i.e. the assessing user can compare the video images of the entity to the authorised user's profile picture or their own personal knowledge. However, many people prefer not to use live video communication for a variety of reasons, including maintaining a level of privacy during their online interactions, or not wanting others to see their facial expressions and body language during communication. Hence text-based communication has proved by far more popular than video communication on data networks.
While other complex authentication methods may be used, e.g. biometric scanning, retina recognition, these systems generally require specialised hardware and/or software which may not be available or practical to many applications. Thus, numerous authentication systems have been devised to foil or at least hinder unauthorised hijacking of user accounts. Examples of common advanced authentication systems include:                character recognition systems to stop automated hacking by computer software;        multiple sequences of user-specific questions, e.g. “what city were you born in?”        physical code sheets or the like, typically sent to the user's verified address from which a code is requested by the network to authenticate the user;        physical code generator devices time-synchronised with the network;        
However, none of these systems are fail-safe as they all rely on the user taking precautions to avoid using common, easy to remember answers or preventing theft of the physical code devices.
Such systems also do not help in social networks or relationship facilitation services (e.g. online ‘dating’ networks) where users can simply set up a user account with a false identity and credentials. Although traditional methods of authenticating users, e.g. through background vetting, photo-ID comparisons or the like have been widely employed in the past, such methods are expensive and impractical for most social networks. Users of social networks may be distributed in numerous different countries, with differing privacy laws which may preclude vetting assessments.
Thus, there are generally two major risks associated with communication over existing communication networks.
Firstly, there is a risk that an unauthorised entity obtains access to another user's network account or device and then communicates with other users who mistakenly believe the imposter is in fact genuine.
Secondly, there is a risk a fraudulent entity would create a network account or profile with false details, thereby providing a means to deceive other.
It would thus be advantageous to provide a method and system for improved authentication/assessment for users in accessing secure data, data networks and remote communication with other users.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinence of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein; this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
It is acknowledged that the term ‘comprise’ may, under varying jurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusive meaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwise noted, the term ‘comprise’ shall have an inclusive meaning—i.e. that it will be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components it directly references, but also other non-specified components or elements. This rationale will also be used when the term ‘comprised’ or ‘comprising’ is used in relation to one or more steps in a method or process.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.